*FULL* Still Standing: Conversations With Three Founding Partners of the Architects Collaborative

*FULL* Still Standing: Conversations With Three Founding Partners of the Architects Collaborative

The Architects Collaborative (TAC) opened in 1945, when seven young architects invited Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius to join them in what would become an experiment in a collaborative process and pioneering methodologies. The young professionals and their elder partner were bound together by shared humanitarian goals about changing the world through great design and a Modernist aesthetic. The firm led the profession in many ways, even by including two women among its founders and thereby flouting gender conventions of the day. During its 50-year existence, TAC—sometimes called The Cambridge School—became a flagship for the architectural community and was at one time the largest dedicated architectural practice in the United States. Many award-winning firms were spawned by the professionals who founded and worked at TAC.

In the summer of 2006, three members of the original founding group were “still standing.” Film producer and onetime TAC principal Perry Neubauer FAIA filmed a series of conversations with Norman Fletcher FAIA, Sarah (Sally) Harkness FAIA, and John (Chip) Harkness FAIA. Still Standing presents us with highlights that explore the genesis of TAC, the buildings designed by its principals, and how TAC’s work at the forefront of the Modern architectural movement still influences our everyday design assumptions.

With thanks to Perry Neubauer FAIA, former TAC principal and filmmaker.